My friend, we may be losers..but we know fairness

    
       My eyes swam through the colors of blue, green and yellow and at last I found my group, the model platoon. As I paced faster, one of them handed me a rifle. Staring at it for a few seconds, my right hand grabbed it and sighed for I had known that it was the start of my last and worst foundation week...

       Boos and cheers breaking out from each student pointed the beginning of the official start of the 26th Founding Anniversary of Taytay United Methodist Christian School. It was the time for everyone to show-off their skills and talents...it was also time for everyone to win over their mortal enemies and gain glory, for SOME.
       Sweat tickled my body as we waited for antagonism to begin under the scorching heat. Well, everyone was still busy preparing for the field demonstration. Swishing skirts, very short shorts, white masks, eccentric clothes were displayed everywhere. As for me, I wore the same ol' fatigue.
      A few moments later, everyone was asked to go downstairs and take a seat. It was time to brag their styles and cool moves in dancing, a time to piss off other year levels with obnoxious cheers.
      So I remained seated calmly, until after watching the juniors performance in cheering. Okay, so my body stiffened, my lips went dry... obviously, the Seniors will be losers at this point. When it was time for us to show the audience some rifle exhibition mixed with a cheer dance, we got up and positioned ourselves. The model platoon had only a serious practice the night before the field demonstration, so our bodies could not coordinate well with our hands; consequently, we made a mess. It was minutes of embarrassment knowing that WE'RE SENIORS and PART OF THE MODEL PLATOON... Then the others performed modern dance and ballroom. Results were revealed later that afternoon; evidently, the juniors were conquerors of ballroom and cheering and seniors, on the other hand, modern dance. Okay, almost everyone thinks it was "luto" or bias but actually, it was not. We just think it is because we can't humble ourselves and say "Oo nga magaling talaga sila, kami, ginawa naman namen ang best pero wala talaga eh...Mas mahusay sila." Sadly, we know we are studying in a Christian school but we cannot face the fact that they really deserved to be called "champions". We just can't find anyone to blame so we say things like, "daya naman!" "luto!"
      May be we're just too arrogant and self-loving to even notice the people disguised in losers' suit. Probably we just can't see that anyone is capable of winning, or our judgmental eyes blur our vision and cannot see honesty in our opponents...just may be.  
      The next three days consisted of battles of the brains and bodies, chess, badminton, basketball and volleyball. Sophomores competed against the freshmen and seniors vs. juniors. Of course, there is always a victor and a loser. Unfortunately, our team was in the list of the losers... as part of all the games excluding chess... I could say that the battles were all fair and square. Our opponents were all experts in a specific sport and noticeably, each had trained and worked hard to master offensive and defensive moves. On the other hand, the members of our teamed played well but was not able to keep pace with the level of the opposing teams (this is so hard for me to admit, *sighs*). My body was still reacting normally and calmly until...
  Wearing my cool jersey and rubber shoes, I paced calmly towards my beloved school. It was the last day of           the foundation week, the championship. On the next few ours, I was seated and my body was at a no-battle condition, cheering my teammates; in short I was just part of the audience in that moments. Suddenly... " Mai! maglaro ka! Palitan mo si Teasha." my body immediatly reacted and the adrenaline started gushing. I ran towards the basketball court. As I got nearer the court, I saw a small crowd and I could hear blames and complaints from it, so my my feet shifted direction from north to east. As the complaints got so audible, my eyes wandered and saw a teacher being cornered by my teammates. Automatically, I started asking some from my team what had happened. "Bias eh, pano sa second year kampi. Ayaw paglaruin si Diore kasi daw may injury kahit sabe ni nurse okay na daw. Madaya talaga." (Diorela was one of our greatest players.) Hearing this made me furious. My body shook with anger. I was violent, full of rage. I threw a "Mga mandurugas kayo" look against one of the opponents, specifically the "pinaka maangas." in their team. (But I got over with it, I guess it was a normal reaction). In the next few minutes, we positioned ourselves and started moving when the referee whistled. When the time was up, the sophomores went crazed; the wild cheers started to vanish in the air...The seniors, well, drooped their shoulders and faced down, we lost. No one had the guts to greet the opponents, "Nice game," because it had not been nice, seriously. Most form the opposing team played roughly (ehem, you know who you are).
       I guess it was not just the first time this happened. I heard rumors that the battles in the second to the last day were reaaaaallly dirty; I have no rights to claim that our team was cheated because I was not around. In the end, after voicing out  all our complaints, the seniors lost.
       I guess God has a purpose for that. May be He has something better in store for us because our batch, unlike the others, executed what the most important thing in battles... More important than cool offensive moves, quite effective defensive turns, creative strategies...It is our camaraderie and fairness that make us exceptional, especially in His eyes. This is our best for God's glory, this is how we're supposed to present ourselves in the eyes of our Maker. Good job seniors! :)